Last week saw NVIDIA's introduction of the 7900 GS and the announcement of the 7950 GT. Availability of the 7900 GS has been good since launch, and quite a few manufacturers have released cards above stock clock speeds. We've been able to get ahold of a few of these cards, so we will be able to explore 7900 GS SLI performance. We will also be publishing a 7900 GS mini roundup up in the very near future. For now, here's a list of the cards we have and are currently testing, along with their core/memory clock speeds (though there are more out there).

Today also marks the day that ATI slated for the availability of their X1300 XT, X1650 Pro, X1900 XT 256MB, and X1950 series. We currently see very limited availability of the X1950 XTX, X1900 XT 256MB and X1300 XT cards, but the X1950 CrossFire and X1650 Pro are still not to be found. This is certainly one of the major downsides of a paper launch: we don't know when we will see product available. Right now, the products ATI has announced appear very competitive. Their performance looks good, and the ATI stated MSRP is right on target. Unfortunately, both of these aspects could change between now and when we actually see high availability of product on the shelves. Currently, X1950 XTX cards are about $50-$100 higher than expected, as well as being mostly on back order. Some of the X1300 XT cards we've seen are hitting over $100: a price point not even the X1650 Pro is supposed to break. All of this will absolutely factor into our recommendations today.

Aside from all of this, our focus with this second and final part of our NVIDIA GPU refresh series is on the GeForce 7950 GT. We covered the specifications in our previous article, but for a quick and dirty recap, the 7950 GT is essentially an overclocked 7900 GT with 512MB of RAM as opposed to 256MB. The 7950 GT could also be viewed as an underclocked 7900 GTX. All of these cards have the same number of vertex, pixel, and raster pipes, and some 7900 GT cards can even overclock higher than stock 7950 GT speeds. At this level of performance, NVIDIA is targeting a $300 to $350 USD price range. This puts it in competition with the higher priced overclocked 7900 GT cards, as well as the X1900 XT from ATI. To bring it all home, here are our tables of GPU specifications and prices.

NVIDIA Graphics Card Specifications

Vert Pipes

Pixel Pipes

Raster Pipes

Core Clock

Mem Clock

Mem Size (MB)

Mem Bus (bits)

Price

GeForce 7950 GX2

8x2

24x2

16x2

500x2

600x2

512x2

256x2

$600

GeForce 7900 GTX

8

24

16

650

800

512

256

$450

GeForce 7950 GT

8

24

16

550

700

512

256

$300-$350

GeForce 7900 GT

8

24

16

450

660

256

256

$280

GeForce 7900 GS

7

20

16

450

660

256

256

$200-$250

GeForce 7600 GT

5

12

8

560

700

256

128

$160

GeForce 7600 GS

5

12

8

400

400

256

128

$120

GeForce 7300 GT

4

8

2

350

667

128

128

$100

GeForce 7300 GS

3

4

2

550

400

128

64

$65

ATI Graphics Card Specifications

Vert Pipes

Pixel Pipes

Raster Pipes

Core Clock

Mem Clock

Mem Size (MB)

Mem Bus (bits)

Price

Radeon X1950 XTX

8

48

16

650

1000

512

256

$450

Radeon X1900 XTX

8

48

16

650

775

512

256

$375

Radeon X1900 XT

8

48

16

625

725

256/512

256

$280/$350

Radeon X1900 GT

8

36

12

525

600

256

256

$230

Radeon X1650 Pro

5

12

4

600

700

256

128

$99

Radeon X1600 XT

5

12

4

590

690

256

128

$150

Radeon X1600 Pro

5

12

4

500

400

256

128

$100

Radeon X1300 XT

5

12

4

500

400

256

128

$89

Radeon X1300 Pro

2

4

4

450

250

256

128

$79

Before we take a look at performance numbers, we've got a couple retail versions of the 7950 GT in house already. Both EVGA and XFX have sent us cards, and we were quite happy to learn that the XFX card is passively cooled. Up first is a brief look at what we can expect to see from manufacturers on the 7950 GT front.

also, I'm not trying to imply that we would like more fps for free -- just that (with oblivion) turning up the settings offers better playability (things don't pop out of no where right next to you) and a better visual experience than a higher framerate with less eye candy.

plus, my wife hates jaggies. jaggies and bad anisotropic filtering. I've not seen her react to lag, as she doesn't usually play games where lag is a factor. but she definitely hates waiting for anything, so I'd guess she'd hate lag too. Reply

I would really like to see the 256mb version of 7950GT tested against the 512mb version (biostar makes both, but clocks are easy enough to adjust on any card) at various resolutions with and without 4xAA to see when/if the 512 megs helps speed things up. Reply

7950GT availability is terrible.. its looks like a 7800GTX 512MB launch.. few card released on day and none to seen for weeks ?

Surprising I see ATI not having a paper launch with the X1950XTX which is amazing if you see ATI track record with delays after delays

At the moment i don't think its wise to buy them , as i hear G80 product start next month and early November launch.

I also hear that R600 has run in some trouble and i don't think they will be out this year and will lag 3months behind G80 launch. I would say Mid Jan if they fix what ever problem the engineers are having at ATI. Reply